592 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



which might be explained on reflecting that the sole, bars, 

 and frog, having recovered all their thickness, afterwards 

 oppose an insurmountable obstacle to that movement of 

 contraction on itself, which the hoof tends fatally to assume 

 when the sole and frog are thinned, and the bars are de- 

 stroyed by the boiUoir. 



For it could not be denied that, with ordinary shoeing, 

 the paring of the hoofs brought about this result, as it 

 was a common practice to test by pressure of the thumbs 

 the proper degree of thinness of the soles. 



M. Bouley thought the shoes could be forged and 

 put on as readily as in the old system, and he sums up 

 his report, in 1 866, as follows : The preplantar shoeing 

 had been modified by diminishing the depth of the 

 groove, which was not cut so near the living parts of the 

 foot ; that this modification, necessitated by experience, 

 prevented pain being inflicted, though it had the disad- 

 vantage of making the foot longer than it ought to be, 

 according to the principles of physiological shoeing ; that 

 this inconvenience was increased by the necessity there 

 was for giving the shoe a greater thickness — 2 centimetres 

 (about 9-ioths of an inch), that its narrowness might be 

 compensated for so as to resist wear for a given time; that 

 this inconvenience, which could not be overlooked, was 

 yet counterbalanced: a. By the lightening of the shoe, 

 which diminished fatigue, h. By the greater surety of the 

 horse's footing, a more solid bearing on the ground, greater 

 liberty of movement, and as a result, a more efficacious 

 employment of its strength, c. By the preservation of 

 the integrity of its feet, or the gradual disappearance of 

 deformities or diseases affecting them. 



